Home sales market tops £18bn but volume falls

The value of sales in the Scottish residential property market increased by 1.3% to £18.1 billion in 2018, according to new figures released on Tuesday by Registers of Scotland.

The figures show the while the 2018 calendar year saw an increase in the average price of a residential property, there was a decrease in the volume of sales.

The calendar year residential market review 2018 shows a 3.7% increase in the average price for a residential property in Scotland in 2018, compared with 2017, to £179,121.

City of Edinburgh and East Renfrewshire showed the highest average prices in 2018 at £266,118 and £259,577 respectively.

The largest annual changes were seen in Midlothian, Falkirk and North Lanarkshire, with increases of 8.7%, 8% and 8% respectively.

However, there was a 2.3% year-on-year fall in the volume of property sales in Scotland, with 100,998 total sales.

Decreases in sales volume were seen in around two-thirds (22) of all local authority areas.

Excluding the local authority areas with the lowest sales volumes, East Dunbartonshire and City of Edinburgh showed the largest decreases, with falls of 9.1% and 8.8% respectively.

South Lanarkshire and North Ayrshire showed the largest increases in sales volume, with rises of 6.2% and 2.9%.

In Scotland’s city local authorities, Glasgow City recorded the highest volume of sales in 2018, higher than the City of Edinburgh for the first time since 2011.

Of the city local authorities, only Dundee City saw an annual increase in sales volumes in 2018 with an increase of 0.1%.

Glasgow City and Aberdeen City saw annual decreases of 3.9% and 2.7%.